7 Big Trends That Are Shaping The Future Of Digital Advertising

It’s no secret: digital advertising is fast, effective and cheap. Companies should be making full use of it or risk being left behind. Here are seven things you should know about the future of digital advertising.

Mobile is massive

More users are interacting with digital via mobile devices. Consumers are using their phones for everything: shopping, researching, reading the news, surfing the web. Advertising in traditional media such as newspapers, TV, and magazines is in freefall, while digital advertising continues on an upward trajectory.

We’re constantly hearing that this is the age of mobile, as mobile becomes bigger and better. It’s where consumers are, so mobile-first is the new way of thinking when it comes to advertising.

Facebook is a big player

Facebook advertising is a must for businesses thinking of advertising online.

Facebook insights is a great feature that enables businesses to discover how people are engaging with their page as well as their ads. This feature allows you to track page performance metrics, audience demographic, impressions, reach and engagement metrics

Facebook plays a huge part in the future of digital advertising. More and more companies are flocking to the social media platform to make use of Mark Zuckerberg’s advertising juggernaut.

Shorter is better

In a world of information overload, consumers have short attention spans and look for bite-sized information and content that’s easy to consume.

Eye-catching visuals are the key to grabbing readers’ attention, their entire attention.

Infographics or videos that are 15-30 seconds long are great ways of advertising. They’re visually strong, and pack a punch, which advertisements need to catch the target audience.

Snapchat has taken social media by storm, with its short ‘catch-me-if-you-can’ content pieces. Businesses need to embrace this way of marketing. Create teasers for upcoming products or services with either videos or photos that exist only for a few seconds. Offer exclusive content that users will love.

Real-time marketing is becoming more and more popular, which is why livestream services such as Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook live have taken off. Companies need to keep up.

Consumers are easily annoyed by ads

Most internet users are blocking ads and muting or skipping videos. Ad blocking occurs more on mobile devices than on desktop. And more users on mobile would consider using an Ad blocker.

Because consumers know how to reject ads, accurate targeting is essential. Bombarding people with irrelevant information is a waste of time for both business and consumer. Focus on careful targeting and your ads will reach the right eyes.

Greater connectivity

Digital advertising allows for greater connectivity with audiences. The ability to target a specific audience, ensuring ads reach those they’re intended for, allows businesses to get to know their target audience more efficiently than traditional advertising methods would.

The more digital advertising evolves, the more connectivity businesses will have with their target audience. This information will make it much easier to plan advertising campaigns because the business will know what the audience likes and wants.

Video is getting bigger

Online video continues to dominate. People are looking to videos for everything from how to fix a puncture to how to cook a new dish. They spend hours watching makeup and hair styling tutorials. Video is first choice for education and entertainment purposes.

Businesses are investing massively in pre-roll ads that run before the video the user wants to watch. Remember, keep the ads between 15-30 seconds to prevent users from installing ad blocks. It’s also important to ensure that the advertisement content relates to the viewer’s demographic.

Nowadays, everyone is attached to their phone. Walking down the street, it seems, all we see is the top of people’s heads. Because of this, video advertisements should be mobile friendly and sometimes, specifically made for mobile devices.

Native Advertising

Native advertising isn’t new but digital ad spending in this area is increasing faster than any other. Native ads are typically long-form blog posts, infographics or videos, that aim to inform, educate, entertain or inspire people, without directly promoting a brand, product or service.

For example, a retail clothing company could promote a half-price summer sale using a banner ad. A native ad would be used to promote a blog post that the company produced on summer fashion tips.

As ad blocking becomes more of a threat to display advertising, native content will be essential to drive growth in the digital advertising market.

Audiences enjoy native content because it’s not designed to directly promote a product or service. Native content often consists of visually stunning articles, featuring great photos, videos, graphics and written content. It is generally content created by brands to tell stories.

When content is relevant, useful, and invites feedback, it is easier to consume and share. For this and other reasons, native advertising is a successful marketing tactic that all businesses should exploit.

Digital advertising is here to stay. In the always-online world in which we now live, it’s important for marketers to keep up with digital trends and embrace change as it arises.

– This post was written by Emma Vince – former Digital PR Lead at Tinderpoint.

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